Diverting Authorities

This work explores literary experimentation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, focusing on marginal annotations by various authors. It examines how glosses reflect evolving ideas of authorship and literary authority.

Diverting Authorities explores the landscape of literary experimentation during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, focusing on the role of marginal annotations, or 'glosses,' in various texts. The author, Jane Griffiths, investigates how these glosses serve as critical evidence for the evolving concepts of authorship and literary authority during this period. The book delves into the works of notable authors such as Lydgate, Douglas, Chaloner, Baldwin, Bullein, Harington, and Nashe, highlighting the significance of glosses as a method for authors to reflect on their text-shaping processes.

A central theme of the book is the impact of the advent of print on glossing practices. Griffiths traces the transmission of glossed texts in both manuscript and printed forms, examining how glosses developed in response to the changing landscape of literary production. She pays particular attention to a lesser-known yet prevalent type of gloss: those that are deliberately playful and diverting, rather than solely informative. This playful approach to glossing not only engages readers but also invites them to contemplate the nature of authorship and authority in the context of emerging print conventions.

By bridging the gap between medieval and Renaissance literature, as well as manuscript and print traditions, Diverting Authorities positions glossing as a distinct literary genre. Griffiths argues that these experimental glosses reflect and shape contemporary ideas about authorship, demonstrating how the material processes of writing and transmission influence literary practices. The book ultimately offers a fresh perspective on the interplay between text and authorial intent during a transformative period in literary history.